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crop record keeping News

Weeks of record rainfalls drenched Don Lamb's cornfields this summer, drowning some plants and leaving others yellowed, 2 feet tall and capable of producing little, if any, grain. The 48-year-old central Indiana farmer can't recall anything like the deluges he's seen from late May on this summer; the latest was a 4-inch downpour a week ago. Neither can his father, who's been farming for 50 years. ...

The US is celebrating bumper crops this year, according to Farming UK. The publication states that the record-breaking corn harvest this year surpassed expectations of the US Department of Agriculture and it seems that because of the warm summer this year, that the UK could be following in its footsteps. Farming UK also reports on a trial that examines the good health of sugar beet crops. With ...

A new state report shows California farmers reaping record sales despite the epic drought, thriving even as city-dwellers have been forced to conserve water, household wells have run dry and fish have died. California's 76,400 farms recorded $53.5 billion in sales in 2014, the year Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state in a drought emergency and launched what in 2015 became mandatory conservation ...

Cash continues to flow into cleantech, with venture investments hitting $2 billion for the second quarter of this year, an all-time record quarter according to a report released last month by the Cleantech Group. The report covers North America, Europe, China and India and spans 96 companies, with solar thermal and second-generation biofuels in the lead. There’s a growing ...

A potentially record-setting U.S. corn harvest is underway. Many farmers can attribute the use of cover crops as one of multiple best management practices (BMPs) that help them increase yield year after year. Combined with BMPs of The Fertilizer Institute’s 4R Nutrient Stewardship program that promotes the application of nutrients at the right source, right rate, right time and right place, ...

Global prices of key staple food commodities rose in April, marking its third consecutive monthly increase after four years of decline. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 151.8 points in April, a 0.7 percent increase from March. That is about 10 percent below its level of a year ago and more than a third off its 2011 ...

In 2009, the most recent year for which global data are available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 311 million hectares in the world was equipped for irrigation but only 84 percent of that area was actually being irrigated, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service ...

With a little help from that natural cyclic phenomenon El Niño and a lot of help from humans, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will exceed 400 parts per million (ppm) not just for the rest of the year, but probably for a lifetime. And as carbon ...

The total greenhouse gas emissions of 40 industrialized nations rose to an all-time high in 2005, continuing the upward trend of the year before, according to data submitted to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The increases came from the continued economic growth in highly industrialized countries as well as the revived economic growth in former ...

Pakistan's outdated crop yield forecasting system needs a revamp, says Ibrar ul Hassan Akhtar. Like most developing countries, Pakistan is staring at the spectre of food insecurity, with its food production out of sync with population growth. The food availability scenario is further ...

Global food markets will likely remain "generally well balanced" in the year ahead, as prices for most internationally-traded agricultural commodities are relatively low and stable, FAO said today. The benign outlook, especially for staple grains, is poised to lower the world food import bill to a six-year low, according to the Food ...

Florida has nearly 70 million citrus trees on more than 531,500 acres. Now imagine trying to figure out what pesticide to spray on each of those trees to keep them safe from citrus greening. University of Florida researcher James Tansey says the answer is as close as your Android smartphone with a new app developed with ZedX, an information technologies company based in Pennsylvania. The ...

In a year that saw fewer earthquakes, mudslides, droughts and famines than the year before, the monetary loss from 2011's catastrophic events reached a record $380 billion, surpassing the 2005 record of $220 billion. There were 820 natural catastrophes globally in 2011, causing 27,000 deaths. Most of these were from earthquakes and flooding according to data compiled by ...

Experts are available for interviews on this topic! A new innovation can completely reshape an industry-- inspiring both optimism and debate. The development of genetically engineered (GE) crops in the 1980's ignited a buzz in the agricultural community with the potential for higher crop yields and better nutritional content, along with the reduction of herbicide and pesticide ...

CJP , the Centre for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel ‘s new Nonfood Biodiesel crops like algae, castor, moringa, pongamia, jojoba, simarouba, Mahua, flax, kenaf, Calophyllum etc. are poised for commercialization as the newest, greatest biodiesel feedstock as these crops can produce the greatest amount of feedstock for the lowest input and cost. Good scientific research done by ...

According to the most recent AHDB aphid alert summary, although a marginal increase in activity has been recorded in recent weeks, total aphid numbers still remain relatively low for the time of year. However, it’s possible that aphids may still be present in potato crops as they head towards maturity, and with the hot weather seen recently, aphids could become an increasing threat ...

This summer, record temperatures and limited rainfall parched vast areas of U.S. cropland, and with Earth’s surface air temperature projected to rise 0.69 degrees Celsius by 2030, global food production will be even more unpredictable, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org). Although agriculture is a major driver of ...

Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of CropLife Asia, participated today at the Tech4Farmers Asia 2.0 event held in Bangkok. He took part on a panel looking at the issue of 'Creating an Enabling Environment for Market Access'. "The population in Asia is projected to have one billion more people by 2050," said Dr. Tan. "Our farmers need to produce more food to feed a growing world while ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 12, 2013 – The June World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report released today by the Agriculture Department reflects the slow corn planting season across much of the Corn Belt due to snow, rain and cool weather, according to analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation. Ninety-five percent of this year’s corn crop was planted as of June 9 (only 92 ...

Owners of farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses that use pesticides in agricultural plant production will have to implement additional safeguards for their pesticide handlers and agricultural workers under a revision to the Worker Protection Standard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the new rules in the Federal Register Nov. 2. Compliance with most of the new rules will be ...